CS/IT Project Development 2017

Deliverable 3: Design Specification

Sections

System Architecture

Detailed Design

Content Type(s): text, pictures, tables, algorithms, ...

Length: from several pages to tens of pages

System Architecture

A high-level view of your system design. Similar to the “System Description” section of the Requirements Specification, but in more detail and focussing on how the system works, not what it will do. You may include a block diagram showing the system components/modules and describe each briefly.

Detailed Design

For each of the components identified in the System Architecture, give details of how they will be built. You may use different notation for the design, e.g. UML, block diagrams, pseudocode, message sequence charts, flow charts, hardware designs.

A low-level view of your system design.

Writing and Formatting Designs

The design specification should include both 'what' and 'why'. That is, what is the design and why did you choose to design it that way. The 'why' part is also called rationale or justification, and is especially important when describing key parts of your system: “A key feature of our game is the manner in which points accrue when a player kills an opponent. Points are gained/lost according to the algorithm below ... . The reason we choose this approach is ... .”.